


Listening

by weakinteraction



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-03 16:25:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6617764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weakinteraction/pseuds/weakinteraction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey, on Jakku.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Listening

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gloss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gloss/gifts).



Rey listens.

She listens to the wind, whipping up the sand against the hull of the Star Destroyer, and knows that it is time to leave before the storm.

She listens to the stuttering of the engine of her speeder as she heads back to town, and knows that she will need to rebuild it soon. More time when she will not be able to scavenge, more parts she will have to use for herself instead of sell.

She listens to Unkar Plutt, telling her that all her finds are only worth three quarters of a portion, and knows that he is cheating her, but that there is nothing she can do about it. 

And then, as she drinks around the water station, she listens to the others -- her fellow scavengers and the few desperate travellers who find themselves here -- and she knows that there is so much more to the galaxy than this.

The legends they tell are always the same: an eternal battle through the ages, re-expressed in each generation, resonating throughout the galaxy at every level from the inner conflict of a single human heart, to families at war with one another, to the clash of entire civilisations. The Dark Side and the Light, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, the Sith and the Jedi, the Empire and the Republic. And now the First Order and the Resistance. The travellers who came in last week whisper darkly about the First Order having some enormous project under way, sucking in resources from dozens of different sectors.

What changes depending on who's telling the legends is the interpretation. To some, the legends are a source of hope. They believe that the New Republic, as it rebuilds, will one day expand its embrace of fair trade and mutual aid to encompass even forgotten backwaters like Jakku. That the Jedi Order is being rebuilt, and will once more become the guardians of peace and justice throughout the galaxy.

But such views are a minority on Jakku, tolerated as harmless but widely scorned as unrealistic optimism. According to most, the Old Republic was only ever a pretty lie that its senators told one another: always riddled with corruption even before its eventual fall, allowing criminality to rampage across the galaxy and tyrants to oppress their own planets however they chose, provided they didn't impose any import tariffs. In this view, the New Republic is weak, doomed before it has even really begun. People are venal, petty, only out for themselves. The Dark Side is only a name for the inexorable workings of the universe itself, pulling everything into disorder and decay. Everything has always been falling, and always will be. It is not hard to see why such beliefs hold sway; they live amongst the ruins of an entire fleet that fell from the stars to be covered by the sand. Their lives are marked out by the day-to-day struggle to survive, not the grand struggles of ideals or civilisations.

Rey never says much in these conversations. She's not sure she believes all the stories, doesn't think that any one person could do even a quarter of what the legends ascribe to this "Luke Skywalker". But she does believe -- no, she knows, instinctively, against all the evidence her life has provided to date -- that there is something better out there. Not just for herself -- though she is sure that she will find her family again, one day -- but for everyone. The fall is not all that there is.

As the impromptu gathering breaks up, and the travellers return to their ship, Rey waits. They will be leaving soon, and she never misses a chance to see a departing ship when it presents itself. One of the older scavengers comes back after a while, to check on her. Rey appreciates the gesture, but assures her that everything's fine. She waits until the ion exhaust ports on the visitors' craft begin to glow blue before she stands up.

Rey listens to the almighty roar of the engines as she watches the take off, and knows that one day she will _rise_.


End file.
